Homer Simpson vs. the economy

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2022

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When the beloved Simpsons family made its TV debut in 1989, it squarely represented middle-class America. Today ... not so much. That house, those two cars, those three kids all on one salary doesn't seem so believable anymore. Today we examine the changing reality of what middle-class means in America through the Simpsons. It's a wild, musical journey into the heart of the US economy. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:03.0	The average American.
0:07.8	Most Americans, if you ask them, will say that they are just that.
0:11.9	The average American, earning a middle-class wage, or maybe a little more, a little less,
0:17.0	we are a country that measures itself largely by its middle.
0:20.8	But who exactly is the average American, this most mysterious and talk-to-white person?
0:26.3	How much does the average American earn?
0:28.4	How does the average American family actually live?
0:31.1	I mean, we could talk facts and figures all day, but we have to say there's definitely
0:35.2	one American, one family, really, that has kind of claimed that title for a while.
0:41.3	They were, in fact, designed to be the definition of middle-class.
0:46.9	The Simpsons.
0:50.9	Back in 1989, just over 30 years ago, the very first episode of The Simpsons aired on Fox,
0:56.4	and since then, the Simpsons have become an iconic American family.
0:59.8	Kids, we're late for church.
1:02.9	Ready for inspection, man.
1:04.9	Very nice, Maggie.
1:07.4	And Lisa, you look lovely.
1:10.2	The Simpsons had a lot to do with the way I understood the world as a kid and as a teenager.
1:15.5	Growing up with the Simpsons, Danny Alexis Ricecamp saw a lot of their family and community
1:20.0	in the show.
1:21.0	I have a embarrassingly encyclopedia acknowledge of the first ten or eleven seasons.
	...

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